Studio visit: Jonna Twigg

Two sturdy furniture pieces that came from her childhood home hold neatly organized tools, stamping foils, and examples of previous work. "I think these might have been from Pages actually," she noted, pulling from a narrow shelf a notebook that she designed for the Wex's creative writing program for high schoolers. "Yes, so I scored the cover, then I would drill the spine, and then the Pages students would do this simple pamphlet binding stitch, then use the book during the program and their experiences with a number of artists. All the teaching artists also got one and together we bound them over Zoom. It was this really funny, interesting experience."

"That's something I'm reaching back for when thinking about this residency," Twigg explained. "Because people took such possession of these books after sewing them, I thought it'd be really interesting to start thinking more provocatively about what is in the books. If you could bring people in to actually do the simple stitch, how are they going to engage with what's inside?"

On the other side of the studio, near flat files and rolls of book paper, there's a table adorned with a variety of small toys and doodads, what Twigg describes as "all the things that I’ve been stealing from my kids over the years that I love and spend a lot of time thinking about, actually as it pertains to this residency."

"I'm interested in how to make some kind of intervention in the contemporary art space that just kind of reduces alienation," she went on. "Like, why is it that people feel so alienated when they come into some of those spaces? They don't know how to understand or engage, or what they're supposed to do, or what they're supposed to think. I really see that from my kids. I'm struck by the fact that they feel comfortable in museum spaces because I take them there. But when I get there, they don't really have anything to do. They take in the arts, they look at it, but it's hard to know what kind of engagement is actually happening. They're not really allowed to run or make noise. They can't touch anything. Nothing's really at their height, you know?"

So Twigg is putting her mind to how the Wex might make itself more comfortable and inviting for all ages. "One of the things I think of with this residency is crafting arts objects that specifically test or blur the boundaries. made specifically with young folks in mind."

"If you want someone to understand calculus by the time they're 18 years old, we start [teaching] at four and five with addition," she added "If you want people to understand how to use and enjoy contemporary visual art as an adult, when there are really serious topics being brought up, you need to consider them at this age as well."

We're excited to work with Twigg and see what comes from her residency work with the Wex. Look for updates over the coming months, here and on our social feeds.